CNW Group Ltd., also called Canada Newswire and CNW, is a commercial

press release A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also considere ...

service owned by

Cision Cision Ltd. is a public relations and earned media software company and services provider. The company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois; with clients worldwide. The company went public via reverse merge ...

. Cision Distribution services in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

are powered by Canada Newswire. The service is offered stand-alone or as part of its flagshi
Cision Communications Cloud
platform for PR professionals.

History

CNW was founded in 1960 as Canada News Wire, by Joseph Adair Porter Clark (1921-2013) who became CEO and President of the news service. (Clark is the father of television journalist Tom Clark) CNW originally delivered text news releases to news media outlets on behalf of paying clients. This model expanded over time to include the provision of ancillary services required by investor relations and

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

professionals, including translation, photography, webcasts, media databases and media monitoring. Canada Newswire distribution switched to using

XHTML Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) is part of the family of XML markup languages. It mirrors or extends versions of the widely used HyperText Markup Language (HTML), the language in which Web pages are formulated. While HTML, prior ...

instead of ANPA-1312, allowing for more formatting of releases. Which enables transmission of text. In 2003, CNW entered into a commercial endorsed deal with TSX for its newswire and webcast services through a paid sponsorship agreement. CNW was acquired by US-based

PR Newswire PR Newswire is a distributor of press releases headquartered in Chicago. The service was created in 1954 to allow companies to electronically send press releases to news organizations, using teleprinters at first. The founder, Herbert Muschel, ...

in 2013. PR Newswire was subsequently acquired by

in 2016. Cision was most recently acquired by Platinum Equity, announced October 22, 2019. On March 19, 2021 Business Insider reported Cision may be looking to spin off its NewsWire unit.

References

{{Authority control Technology companies of Canada Canadian companies established in 1960 Press release agencies